Tiffany Haddish came to her recent stand-up show expecting loud laughs. What she received instead was the sign she says she’d been praying for.
During a recent stand-up show, the comedian paused mid-set when she spotted a familiar face in the audience. One that instantly pulled her out of performer mode and into a deeply personal moment. Sitting in the crowd was Coleta Lewis, the social worker who once helped guide Haddish through some of the most uncertain chapters of her life.
Haddish, 46, later shared the emotional reunion in a video posted to Instagram, captioning it, “Holiday Reunion with my social worker. Thank you, Coleta, for everything 💕.”
In the clip, Lewis introduces herself from the audience: “I don’t know if you remember me, my name is Coleta Lewis.” Haddish doesn’t hesitate.
“Coleta Lewis! My social worker!” she exclaims, asking for the lights to be turned on before stepping offstage to embrace her. When she returns to the mic, the moment turns tearful.
“You saved my life,” Haddish tells Lewis. “I’m where I’m at now because of you. Because you encouraged me, you were one of the first people to believe in me. Thank you. I love you.”
The “Girls’ Trip” star then explained to the audience how Lewis supported her during a turbulent period marked by substance abuse and a lack of direction. As a student frequently getting into trouble, Haddish recalled being given a pivotal choice one summer.
“You got two choices this summer,” Haddish said Lewis told her at the time. “You can go to the Laugh Factory comedy camp or psychiatric therapy.”
Haddish joked that she initially asked which option involved drugs, only to be told neither would. She chose the comedy camp at the Laugh Factory, a decision she says changed the entire trajectory of her life.
The reunion carried even more weight because, as Haddish revealed in her Instagram post, she had been on the verge of walking away from stand-up altogether. Before the show, she said she prayed for a sign that she should keep going.
“I remember being on stage saying to myself, ‘This is the end of stand-up, and this is just how I want to finish,’” she wrote. “Then out of nowhere, God sends the first person outside of my family that actually believed in me.”
Haddish added that Lewis not only helped place her in a stable home but also, in her words, “placed me in the best possible home, the Laugh Factory comedy club.”
The moment also reflects the growth Haddish has spoken candidly about in recent years. She has been open about her struggles with addiction and reports that she has been sober since her 2023 DUI arrest.
“I haven’t had a drink since [the incident],” she said at the time. “When I sit back and look at my life, everything that’s crazy that’s happened is because somebody or I had alcohol in their system.”
On this night, though, the clarity was unmistakable. A packed comedy club, a standing ovation, and the woman who once believed before the world did. Proof that sometimes the universe answers prayers with a familiar face and a reminder of just how far you’ve come.
